TYPE. UNITED STATES. Vermont, Brattleborough, Russell & Frost s.n. (FH-Tuck., lectotype designated by Hale 1967).

Description. Life form: lichenized fungus.

Thallus foliose, dark olive-brown to blackish brown, adnate; lobes under 1 mm wide. Vegetative diaspores soredia in elliptical, distinct white soralia along lobe margins, flecked with black. Photobiont Trebouxia alga. Lower surface pale to dark brown; rhizines moderately abundant to sparse. Ascomata not reported. Pycnidia black, raised, on lobe margins.

Chemistry. Medulla K+ yellow turning red, KC-, C-, PD+ yellow; atranorin, stictic and norstictic acids.

Substrate and Habitat. Saxicolous on exposed rocks, especially on talus.

Distribution. Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge ecoregion.

Literature

Brodo, I.M., S. Duran Sharnoff & S. Sharnoff. (2001) Lichens of North America. Yale University Press, New Haven & London. 795 pp.

Hale, M.E., Jr (1967) New taxa in Cetraria, Parmelia, and Parmeliopsis. The Bryologist 70: 414-422 (original description as Cetraria culbersonii).